See You There!

Artvoice's weekly round-up of events to watch out for the week, including our editor's pick: The Artvoice B.O.O.M! First Round Quarter Final showdown at Nietzsche's on Friday night.
If you haven't already, be sure to check out our new and improved events calendar on-line for complete event listings, a location guide to find your way about the city, restaurant reviews, and more.

Artvoice B.O.O.M! Live Battle of the Bands

Friday, October 16th

Join us for the latest installment of our popular Battle of Original Music, where four local acts will face off in half-hour sets to determine which one will win a live video produced by Artvoice, along with the right to compete in our upcoming BOOM Grand Finale. At the Grand Finale, the winner will receive a digital recorder courtesy of Guitar Center, as well as a hefty cash prize. The lineup for Friday’s show (Oct. 16) was determined by visitors to Artvoice.com, as they listened to music by each contestant before casting a vote for their favorite band over the past four weeks. Each week, the band that collected the most votes won a spot on the bill. Now, it’s every performer’s task to rally their fans out to Nietzsche’s, where every person through the door will receive one ballot to cast for the act they deem the best. The contestants in this preliminary are the Albrights, David Cloyd, Carpo Phorus, and the Fated Grey. Come see and hear some of the best undiscovered talent our area has to offer, and participate in democratically selecting the winner of our ongoing battle of the bands. Attention original musicians: Visit Artvoice.com and enter now for our next round of BOOM, which starts next week!

Friday, Saturday & Sunday October 16-18

Kevin Smith Film Festival

Self-taught New Jersey filmmaker Kevin Smith recently turned 39, so it’s probably safe to say that his enfant terrible days are behind him. His next film, scheduled for release in February, is a big studio project and the first time he has worked from someone else’s script. Then again, the title is A Couple of Dicks, so he may still be firmly in touch with his inner teenager. You can relive Smith’s onscreen adolescence this weekend with a mini-festival of six of his films at the Riviera Theater. The series of double features starts on Friday (Oct. 16) with his auspicious, fearlessly rude, shot-on-a-shoestring debut Clerks (1994) and its belated sequel Clerks II (2006). Saturday’s features are his John Hughes tribute Mallrats (1995) and the more ambitious romantic comedy-drama Chasing Amy (1997). The series concludes on Sunday with his most sustained and certainly most audacious feature, Dogma (1999), which beneath its apocalyptic farcicality is a serious investigation of Catholicism, followed by the Hollywood satire Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) —m. faust

Saturday, October 17th

The Room

In an era when “cult movie” and “so bad it’s good” have become marketing phrases, viewers looking for a new Plan 9 From Outer Space or Rocky Horror are disappointed more often than not. That isn’t the case with The Room, the LA cult hit which makes its local debut at midnight on Saturday (Oct. 17). Writer/director/producer/star Tommy Wiseau has recently claimed that he actually meant for this to be a comedy, but this berserk melodrama with dollops of unerotic softcore was clearly intended to be serious. This is a movie that wants to be a Tennessee Williams play when it grows up, except someone dropped it on its head when it was young and it hasn’t been right ever since. The alternately pretentious and preposterous dialogue is hilarious in its own right, but more so when delivered in an unidentifiable middle European accent by Wiseau, who seems to have no idea what any of it means. Dressed in an oversized black suit (he’s supposed to be some kind of banker), he looks like a combination of Gene Simmons, Harvey Keitel, and Mickey Rourke.. As a director, he seems to have studied at the Barbra Streisand school of “This movie is about me and don’t you forget it!” This is one you just gotta see.

Saturday, October 17th

Sound Tribe Sector 9

Sound Tribe Sector 9 is a Santa Cruz-based jam band that has traded in their LSD for computer chips. The band defies simple categorization—few bands have ever played with both Tortoise and James Brown—and has elements of drum and bass, jazz, rock, hip hop, and funk all mixed with live electronica. For a faint idea of their sound, think of the intros of Linkin Park if they weren’t marred by Nu-metal, twist that with King Crimson, then add some Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin—spacey, energetic, and intelligently made electro-rock jams. Confused? Well, did you expect a jam band from the future to be simple? Check them out on Saturday (Oct. 17) at the Town Ballroom

Saturday, October 17th

Johnny Dowd

Dark songsmith Johnny Dowd makes his first area appearance since 2005 at the same venue he played last time: Marty Boratin and Susan Tanner’s house. Four years ago it was on the occasion of their wedding, and this time it marks their final house concert of the year—a series that’s been providing a much-needed local outlet for some great performers working outside the mainstream. A Texas/Oklahoma native raised on pre-1950s blues, Dowd didn’t pick up an instrument until he was 30. Twenty years later, he released his first record. His stark music conjures up a mixture of paranoia and desperation peculiar to outlaws, drifters, and other eerie American archetypes, lightened with flashes of gallows humor. That’s one reason why Dowd has toured as a warm up act for both Neko Case and the Mekons over the past decade. Opening the show is reclusive Buffalo singer-songwriter Michel Weber, whose unique style has been absent from the local scene while she’s been busy raising her son. This is a chance to hear her new material. Come early this Saturday (Oct. 17) and bring a dish for the pot-luck at 5pm. Call 812-4671 for directions

Saturday, October 17th

Oh My God!!

Chicago’s Oh My God underwent a difficult two years as a band before coming back stronger and more triumphant than ever. Addiction and domestic strife had been bad enough, but things truly came to a halt while they were beginning their 2007 fall tour. Oh My God’s van was hit by a drunk driver and, although there were thankfully no fatalities, the band sustained injuries and emotional setbacks. Although hit hard, Oh My God peresevered and is now back on the road promoting their brand new record, The Night Undoes The Work Of The Day. Often described as a “bar rock band,” Oh My God possesses obvious nods to 1970’s arena rock sounds, along with use of synthesizer and organ that comes close to the new wave rock of The Cars or Weezer. Oh My God perform at Mohawk Place on Saturday (Oct. 17) at Mohawk Place. Opening are Patrons of Sweet and a Hotel Nourishing

Sunday, October 18th

Mary Brackman Benefit

If you know massage therapist Mary Brackman, you don’t need any coaxing to come to this fundraiser. But you don’t need to know Mary to sympathize with victims of breast cancer. Nor do you need to know Mary to recognize what a terrific lineup of musicians are playing this benefit for her on Sunday (Oct. 18) at the Unitarian Universalist Church at Elmwood and West Ferry: Mary Ramsey (pictured) with special guests Stu Weissman and Avery and Ethan Weissman, and Gretchen Schultz and Doug Morgano. There will be a silent auction and door prizes, too, as well as food and drink. And in some sad corner, the Bills game will be on. The proceeds will help defray Brackman’s ongoing medical expenses following surgical treatment of breast cancer.

Monday, October 19th

Sugar and Gold

Rising from the celebrated indie dance underground, Sugar & Gold is something that needs to be seen to be believed. Meshing funk, smooth R&B, post punk, and a showmanship that has been described as Prince-meets-Cramps, KC & the Sunshine Band on LSD, and the Everly Brothers, this is a scantily clad, androgynous six-piece that joins catchy choruses with beats that challenge the body to bump and grind on the dance floor. Local fans of MGMT or Of Montreal would not want to miss this Buffalo appearance, as it is in performance that Sugar & Gold truly shines. Whatever your impression may be, it won’t likely be forgotten too soon. Sugar & Gold play at a free indie dance night at Mohawk Place on Monday (Oct. 19). Opening and closing the night will be sets from DJ Dan Firestorm

Monday, October 19th

Danny Barnes with Mike Bub

Banjo picker extraordinaire Danny Barnes first made his talents known to a widespread audience as the frontman of Austin-based psycho-bluegrass progenitors the Bad Livers in the early 1990s. Their shows were a jaw-dropping mix of authentic bluegrass sounds and wildly unexpected covers—including Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life.” They released several records and toured all over, where audiences would walk away impressed for life. Barnes has also collaborated with jazz guitarist Bill Frizell, and has played on albums by artists ranging from Robert Earl Keen to Dave Alvin to Dave Matthews. He’s joined at Babeville’s Ninth Ward on Monday night (Oct. 20) by in-demand standup bassist Mike Bub, who held down the low end for the Del McCoury Band, among others. Local bluegrass band the Erie Lackawanna Railroad opens the show.

Wednesday, October 21st

Andrew Bird

It’s not exactly a homecoming for Andrew Bird, but it’s certainly all in the family. Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records released the first two solo studio records made by the celebrated singer/songwriter—and guitarist, mandolin picker, violinist, glockenspielist, whistler—so his Wednesday night (Oct. 21) show at Babeville ought to feel like something of a reunion. Bird is a musical polymath, and a somgwriter of peculiar genius: His lyrics beg to be described as quirky, or possibly opaque, but his melodies and musical arrangements draw on a wide range of familiar, enticing sounds—folky strings underpinned by muted dance beats, jazz-inflected breaks, soft harmonies—that draw the listener comfortably into Bird’s peculiar universe of sound and sentiment and imagery. He’s also a product for his times: He kept a blog for the New York Times about the making of his latest album, Noble Beast, which, like nearly everything Bird records, has received rave reviews. Don’t miss one of this fall’s must-see shows. St. Vincent (aka award winning one-woman band Annie Clark) opens the show.